Hilo High alumni, friends and family were expected to pack into the school’s new gymnasium Tuesday night for the first game to be played in the facility.
Hilo High alumni, friends and family were expected to pack into the school’s new gymnasium Tuesday night for the first game to be played in the facility.
The Hilo Vikings girls basketball team faced off against the Kealakehe Waveriders.
The long-anticipated building has met with delay after delay since its earliest inception.
The latest delay was connected with a series of small additions and changes that needed to be completed before the gym could qualify for its certificate of occupancy from the county.
The gym was supposed to celebrate its grand opening Sept. 13, but that was canceled after a dispute that delayed completion of concrete pouring for the building’s driveway fronting Waianuenue Avenue.
School officials are expected to meet later this week to schedule a new grand opening celebration, but the regular use of the gym is set to begin.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Hilo High School Athletic Director Kurt Kawachi. “There’s been a couple of delays that have put a little bit of a damper on things, but the staff, community and especially the players and the coaches are now very excited about having a facility we can call our own. We’re looking forward to some great games and matches for years to come.”
Hilo High Principal Robert Dircks echoed those thoughts.
“Everyone, including parents, have been anxiously waiting to place their ‘ownership’ stamp on our new gym,” he said. “The athletes (girls volleyball, girls and boys basketball and wrestling) have been working out since our receiving the Certificate of Occupancy from the county. You can sense a certain amount of excitement around campus since our digital media students have been broadcasting on KVIKS (school’s televised morning broadcast) student interviews in preparation of the first game. It is definitely an exciting time for all of our present, future and past Vikings.”
For the last month or so, the gym has been used by students and coaches, as long as fewer than 50 people were inside at a time, said Kawachi. But now that the occupancy issue is cleared up, it’s time to start using the gymnasium the way it was intended, with plenty of crowds, excitement, concessions and all the other accompanying fun that comes with high school sports.
“We anticipate a ‘good size’ crowd of both Viking girls basketball followers (Division 1 contenders) as well as those individuals (alumni and community members) who wish to see what this new building looks like,” Dircks wrote Tuesday in an email. “I know that the exterior can be deceptive in terms of overall size. The reality of the new gymnasium’s size will be manifested once you enter. As for me, I will be there for the ‘jump ball’ and then I will relocate so as to attend our Hilo High School Band’s Christmas Concert here on the main campus. Christmas music and basketball … It doesn’t get much better than that!”
Members of the girls basketball booster club were expected to be on hand selling concessions, but school officials said food won’t be allowed inside the new gym for the foreseeable future.
“They’ll have hot dogs and hamburgers, and probably some plate special. … But one of the things we’re going to enforce, because it (the gym) is so new, is that no food and drinks will be allowed in the gym itself,” Kawachi said.
School officials say fans could take a while to get used to the parking situation at the new gym, which requires game attendees to park in the school parking lot and then walk makai of the school either across the track area and over a bridge into the gymnasium, or down the sidewalk along Waianuenue.
Dircks said the athletic director obtained the services of police officers to help direct traffic, as well as school security attendants to help handle crowds.
Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.